"The incendiary reports … indicated that the study was stopped because HRT caused breast cancer and heart attacks, when in reality … there was no statistically significant harm for either breast cancer or heart attacks."

that another problem with the 2002 report was that the results were said to apply to women of all ages, a finding rectified by a subsequent WHI 2007 report which acknowledged "that there was an age at which it's safe to start [HRT] and an age at which you probably should have second thoughts about starting".

Jen Vuk concludes with:

This to me seemed the bigger scandal here. The fact that we weren't being given the proper information went beyond sheer negligence and moved into a far less grey area of potentially failing to save lives.

With the current consensus being that the earlier a menopausal woman starts on HRT the better, I know which road I'll be taking. Basically, like any working mother I've got enough worries to lose sleep over, but I'll not allow menopause to be one of them.